


darkness dripping from your heart

by NotSummer



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, F/M, Natasha Feels, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:59:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6768025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotSummer/pseuds/NotSummer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So you're Hydra's favorite dame. I've heard a lot about you, doll." is written in the ebony of a romantic's scrawl over her left shoulder</p>
<p>"It'll be a pleasure to take out Hydra's attack dog," in platonic gold, neatly carves itself over her spine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	darkness dripping from your heart

Her marks become legible when she's three months old, two months after she's taken to floating any object not nailed down around her. It's the final straw on the camel's back. 

 

 

She is four months old when she lands on an orphanage's door.

 

 

She is two years old when she is taken to the men in white coats, to be poked and prodded and kept in a sterile empty room.

 

 

She's 11 when she discovers the feeling of reaching out and snapping a neck. She hones her powers, and when the scientists and politicians smile at her, she resolves to get used to the churning of her stomach. It isn't something she wants, but she reads over her soulmarks again, and she becomes resolute. This is the only way to meet them.

The scientists push her to expand her powers, even as they use her as a lab rat for human enhancements. She barely survives. It's her healing factor that saves her life, the experimental serum forcing her body to move at speeds and strengths it wasn't supposed to. She is out of commission for weeks. It's the last time anyone uses her for experimentation.

She doesn't complain.

There is order.

 

 

She's 19 when she begins to question her memories and her thoughts.

She meticulously examines each thought, and the feeling of wrongness gets stronger. When she tries to flee, she is dropped with a single phrase by her handlers.

When she is jerked back to consciousness by another trigger phrase, she is chained in a chair, each limb bound by restraining straps meant to hold something much stronger than her. They seem tougher on the left side, but the discrepancy passes her by as she tries to observe her surroundings.

She tries to look around, only to find that her body won't answer her increasingly frantic demands. Her mind feels cold, sluggish, and there's a sense of something _other_ in her head.

Her handlers give the other a mission. The other accepts, and uses her telekinesis to slam into the side of a mountain. The avalanche levels a small town perched on the mountain side, and destroys the communications and sensors for the SHIELD base hidden above the small town.

Other rips through the base, rupturing lungs, tossing aside bullets and throwing knives, and snapping necks. She is a passenger in a blood soaked puppet.

When Other returns to the base, Other is finally given a name. Rampage. In her own act of rebellion she chooses a name for herself. Vigil.

Vigil watches from her front row seats as Rampage tears through Hydra's enemies. There's no subtlety, only devastation.

Vigil waits. Rampage's programming will break.

 

 

Vigil is 24 when the first cracks in Rampage show. Rampage is given the task of attacking the Hulk, and Vigil pushes the idea of leading him away from the city into Rampage's cracks.

Massive telekinetic blasts meet indestructible green fists, and the two throw trees, buildings, cars, and other sizable debris at each other. Rampage is intrigued. Vigil can't remember having this much fun in her life.

Slowly the two come to a standstill, each unable to gain the higher ground for long. The Hulk stares at her, nods, and prowls deeper into the forest.

Rampage is punished for moving the Hulk out of the city. Hydra desired chaos so people would accept order. The cracks seal themselves up.

 

 

Vigil is 26 when Hydra reveals itself to the world. She knows her name is in the files released to the web, but so are her list of sins. There is nothing she can do. Rampage has a mission.

Sow chaos. Take the remnants of SHIELD down with her.

The cracks grow. Vigil waits.

 

 

Vigil is almost 27 when she meets her platonic. Rampage stalks through a crowd, people parting before the predatory gaze and the bitter scowl. As she approaches the rundown motel on the edge of the city, she slows, swinging her head around to try and pinpoint the uneasy feeling. She lets her telekinesis spread out, sensing everything around her, from the rust in the storm drains to the gecko on the curb at her feet to the flickering of the bar signs across the street.

She's too slow to reach out, though, and something slams into her forehead, the familiar stabbing pain of electricity arcing through her body. Disoriented, she spins around, seeking blindly for the source of her pain.

A foot crashes into her chin, snapping her head back, and Rampage snarls as the kick and the electrocution drive her to her knees. She hears the distinct click of a safety being flicked off, and Vigil raises her head, Rampage still flinching from the pain.

A woman's rough voice, murmurs, " **It'll be a pleasure to take out Hydra's attack dog**."

Rampage jerks up, her programming ordering her to _rip tear kill_ , but Vigil crashes through the programming, her patience paying out as Rampage shreds under her mental barrage. Vigil takes a deep breath, tastes the wind on her tongue, and asks to die.

" **Make it quick, at least. I don't want to be anywhere else today.** "

 

 

 

Vigil is 28 when she meets her soulmate. She meets Clint Barton, Hawkeye, and the first platonic of the Black Widow. The three of them uses Vigil's intel to crash through Hydra bases. Natasha tells her about the Red Room, Clint drinks his way through the retelling of Loki, and Vigil confesses her time with Hydra. They drink, the fight, and slowly, the last tatters of Rampage evaporate.

She never meets the other Avengers, worried there will be another trigger lurking in the back of her mind. So when the Avengers charge into Sokovia chasing Strucker, she seeks the few remaining Hydra bases.

She's infiltrated one of them in Kazakhstan, taking the role of a unobtrusive lab assistant, when a chilly hand drags her into an empty vault. She glares up into the icy blue eyes of the Winter Soldier, and his metal arm wraps around her throat as he snarls, " **So you're Hydra's favorite dame. I've heard a lot about you.** "

" **Wasn't my first choice.** " She grimaces, then flicks her fingers, telekinetically shoving his arm away from her. " **I was about to go set the self destruct on a timer. You in?** "

The corner of his mouth quirks up, and opens the door her as they head towards the control hub.

 

 

Vigil is 30 when she joins the Avengers. Not as a fighter- she has far too much blood on her hands. She finds she prefers a support role: keeping her allies from being hit with debris, herding civilians, and analyzing reports.

She has horrific nightmares, and so does James. They're not perfect. They have weeks where neither of them talk but for the ASL Clint teaches them. Vigil takes to playing music wherever she goes so she doesn't startle anyone and vice versa. James hides with Clint in the vents or in the shooting range when it gets too much for him.

Vigil anchors herself in the role of a guardian. She's never been a protector, but she adapts well.

 

Vigil is 32 when she finally feels like she's home. This group is dysfunctional at best, but they're her family.

She rolls over in bed as the morning sun streams in through the windows, and nudges her soulmate. "James?"

He blinks hazily at her, his hair tangled, and a bit of drool at the corner of his mouth.

"Think Stephanie is a good name for the baby?"


End file.
